Part of me wishes I never discovered this game. I found it on the PS Store, at a very nice price, and thought a couple of things:
1: ‘What the hey – I’ll buy it’ (if the Store is working today) and

2: (Having never heard of it before) ‘I wonder if this is like that OTHER game I saw on Xbox…’

To clarify, Xbox owners have been here already with a similar game entitled Trials HD. It’s a very simple premise where you control a rider on a motocross bike, given the task of getting from one end of a course to the other (Remember BBC’s ‘Kickstart’?). You move over a 2D plane (amid nice, entertaining 3D visuals) from left to right over obstacle courses. Some of these require stunts to be pulled off while others need to be traversed in as quick a time as possible. In fact this so much like TrialsHD it’s as if someone said what I’d been saying since 2009 (“We need a Sony version!!”), and finally made it happen. Plus they thought nothing of ripping it off. That being said, Urban Trials Freestyle is not as good as that which it steals from and as such I’ll continue here without further comparison!
In its’ own right, and for those of you who’ve never played that other game (sshhh), UTF is VERY addictive. Painfully so at times – and it’s my life’s mission to earn those stars and get that money. From the start, it’s about getting to grips with handling the bike, earning those aforementioned stars and finding bags of cash dotted throughout stages. The more stars earned, the more stages unlocked – although at times, previous ones are just brought up again for a second event type. Cash is needed to upgrade your bike, which allows for greater scores at record attempts.
Each of the stunt courses demands at least three tricks to be pulled off (flips, high jumps, long jumps, etc) whilst failure to do so, ie. falling off your bike, detracts from overall points collected during the run. Each track will also be available as a Time Trial event and in general, reaching the end of a track is made difficult thanks to goings-on in your environment. Whether it be exploding cars flying at you, or random onlookers throwing cardboard boxes at you, you suddenly realise that many of the dangers represented are overcome with nothing but luck. Getting to know a course can grant the use of skill in some places, but some hazards are just infuriating and demand perseverance.
Yet, despite them having me shout at the screen, I can’t stop playing. I have to reach the goal line. It’s very easy to get caught up trying for that perfect, sometimes seemingly-impossible, run. Urban Trial Freestyle can take up a lot of one’s time if not careful. Even after tearing myself away from it, I feel the urge to play it again. As I write, I am obsessively playing events out in my head, thinking of how to get to that one bag of money floating out of reach and hating myself for my need to reach it.
. Unlockable mini-games are in there, too – such as one where you must bounce your bike off of explosives, to fling yourself as far as possible, but I prefer sticking to the stunt/time trial events. Overall, there’s little else to it. Short and sweet Don’t bother with music, as there’s maybe three tunes to listen to and you spend more time hearing the rider shout in pain and cheer or moan at trick attempts. Graphics are nice enough too and while they are dramatically different on the PS Vita, that’s not why you’re here and for under a tenner, you can’t complain, anyhow.

It took me a LONG time to get over Angry Birds and now, with Urban Trial Freestyle, I’m in trouble again. ‘Just one more go…’